Online ticket sales for events — without a ticketing-platform cut
Going, Eventim and peers take a cut of the ticket and keep your audience. Your own ticketing for a concert, conference, amateur match or workshop leaves the margin and an email list you have consent for.
An organiser pays a ticketing platform the same kind of tax a restaurant pays an aggregator: a percent of ticket value, plus often a service fee passed to the buyer (which still hurts conversion and infuriates people when it appears only on the last step). In Poland the legal market turns around Eventim, Ticketmaster, eBilet and Going — plus niche engines. The exact rate depends on the contract and event type: there is no single “Going = X%” table. Public bands you can cite without guessing look like this: Polish box offices such as Superboss declare commission around 4% net (with room to negotiate on volume); Tixx.pl advertises no cut of the ticket and a different flat fee; international 2025–2026 comparisons put Ticketmaster in a high-percent band plus a service fee (tables often show the order of ~15% and about €1.50 on the buyer side), Dice around 10%, Fever as high as 15–30% for the organiser. That is not your annex — it is the scale to start a spreadsheet from. The reason to do the maths is the same as with Glovo commission: on repeat events your own engine pays back faster than it looks.
In 2023 Poland’s consumer authority (UOKiK) publicly challenged how eBilet, Eventim and Ticketmaster showed prices: “from…” at the start, a mandatory service fee only after a seat was chosen. That is not an argument that “platforms are evil”. It is an argument that price transparency and the audience list are your problem, not only theirs. Your own checkout shows the amount due, including the payment-gateway fee, from the first screen — if that is what you write in the terms.
When a ticketing platform (Going, Eventim, eBilet, Ticketmaster) helps — and when it eats the audience and the margin
A first gig in a new club, when nobody knows the name — a marketplace gives reach and the trust of “I buy where I always buy”. The tenth workshop of the same firm, a local league match, a trade conference with your own list, a screening in a venue / hotel with its own booking — you pay for distribution you do not need, and the email list stays with them. HBR / Bain: a new attendee is many times dearer than a returning one. The platform will not give the list back cheaply, and the marketing consent is theirs, not yours.
- Reach: yes, when you are discovering an artist or a city where you have no brand.
- Commission + service fee: it hurts at an 80–150 PLN price and hundreds of tickets per cycle. At 30 people on a meetup it can be cheaper to leave Going and not build a gate.
- Pool control: early bird, partner code, comps, a per-person cap — a platform can do it, on its rules and with its branding.
- Resale (for example fanSALE at Eventim) is their ecosystem. Your own system: your secondary-market rules, or none. We do not pretend to be a ticket exchange in the MVP price.
- Payment and refunds: on their terms with them. On yours — yours, with a consent log and a version of the copy.
What your own online ticketing system must do before you think about “a Polish Eventim”
A ticketing engine is not “a form with a transfer”. It is pools, a seat cap, payment, the ticket, the gate, a refund, an invoice, contact consent. The same availability calm as course enrolment: a 201st seat on 200 chairs is a disaster, not “they will sort of fit”.
- Pools: early bird, regular, VIP, last minute, a partner code, a comp, a waitlist.
- A cap / sector / row / table / standing zone — no oversell, with a map only if you really have numbered seats (a map is a separate budget).
- Payment: BLIK, card, transfer; instalments and deferred pay only if you really ship an operator, not “as an option on a slide”.
- A PDF + QR ticket (and Wallet if it fits the phase), named or bearer — under the terms, not “however it comes out”.
- Gate validation: phone / scanner, offline mode, one scan = one entry, a second reader for latecomers.
- Refunds, date changes, a named transfer — under your terms, not someone else’s.
- An invoice for a company — with KSeF in mind.
- A mailing list with consent: “next date in the same venue”, not a silent export into a newsletter nobody ticked.
The gate cannot die when the network dies — offline matters more than a pretty shop
A hall, a club basement, an amateur stadium, a manor car park: LTE lies at the worst moment. A code must scan against a local list downloaded before the doors open. Sync happens when the network returns: who entered, who is a duplicate, whose screenshot QR is already used. Same problem as field service, only the queue is angrier and is filming you for TikTok. Two stewards, two phones, one list — not Excel on a knee at the door.
Terms, withdrawal, the service fee and the consumer authority — not a footer decoration
B2C sales mean consumer rights. Withdrawal is often excluded for an event on a fixed date (a service tied to a date) — that must live in the terms and next to a checkbox, not in a “verbal rule on Messenger”. Price: ticket amount + any payment fee, shown before anyone types a card, not “from 99 PLN” with a star at the end. UOKiK already worked this on the large box offices; your own shop does not get a smaller-player discount. We do not replace a law firm. We build the mechanics: checkbox, version text, a log of who accepted what and when. Legal copy comes from your lawyer or a template you accept.
Conference, club, amateur match, workshop — one engine, different pools, not one “event app”
A conference needs invoices, partner codes and a badge list. A club needs fast BLIK and an offline gate. An amateur league needs a season pass and entry on several dates. A workshop needs a seat cap and a waitlist like a course. We do not force a fan app with chat on everyone. We add what sells the next date. A tour and several cities: one cart, many pools, many gates. Hotel + ticket (a night with the event) we join to room booking, not to a new monolith “everything for events in Poland”.
How your own ticket sales pay back — commission, the list, the next date
Add up the last three events: ticket count × average price × platform commission (plus what the service fee ate in conversion). Then the value of a list you have consent for, on the next date. Bain / HBR again: a returning attendee is cheaper than a new one from a marketplace. If the number says “leave Going for discovery and your own checkout for fans” — we will write that. A hybrid is legal and common. Cutting the platform entirely makes sense when the brand already pulls sales on its own.
On-sale minute zero, chargebacks and a ticket that must work at the gate, not only in email
If you drop a pool at 10 am and expect several hundred people at once, the shop needs a queue, a per-person cap and a calm “sold out”, not a payment-gateway timeout. That is still not “tens of thousands a second” — that needs a separate budget and a virtual queue. For a 400-person conference and a 40-person workshop a solid BLIK and card checkout is enough, without pretending to be Ticketmaster. Say the peak honestly: one drop at 10 am, or a three-week early-bird drip.
A chargeback and “I never got the email” cost more than a pretty PDF. A payment log, ticket re-send, an address change, voiding the old QR on a refund — that is craft, not decoration. A named ticket with a transfer limit cuts fraud in Facebook “selling cheaper” groups. A bearer ticket is easier and easier to screenshot; the choice belongs in the terms, not to chance. Wallet (Apple / Google) we add when the phase has time; a QR in a PDF opens the gate and that is the minimum, without which a fan app is just talk.
Commission 4–15%, the service fee and UOKiK 2023: a number from your events, not a “zero percent” slogan
The legal market in Poland turns on Eventim, Ticketmaster, eBilet and Going. Public bands: Superboss declares about 4% net (with room to negotiate on volume); Tixx.pl — a no-cut-of-ticket model and another flat fee. International 2025–2026 tables put Ticketmaster in a high-percent band plus a service fee (often the order of ~15% and about €1.50 on the buyer side), Dice around 10%, Fever 15–30% for the organiser. That is a spreadsheet scale, not your annex. Same reason as with Glovo commission: a repeat cycle usually pays your own checkout faster than another campaign that feeds someone else’s list.
In 2023 Poland’s consumer authority (UOKiK) challenged “from…” pricing at eBilet, Eventim and Ticketmaster when a mandatory service fee appeared only after a seat was chosen. Your own shop does not get a smaller-player discount. The amount due (ticket + gateway fee) should be on the first screen if that is what you write in the terms.
Withdrawal for a dated event, a named ticket and chargebacks — mechanics, not a law firm in the QR price
B2C sales mean consumer rights. Withdrawal is often excluded for a service tied to a specific date — that must live in the terms and next to a checkbox, not in a “verbal rule on Messenger”. A lawyer supplies the clause. We supply the version, a log of who accepted and the refund path through the payment operator. A named ticket with a transfer limit cuts fraud in “selling cheaper” groups. A bearer ticket is easier and easier to screenshot. The choice belongs in the terms.
A chargeback and “I never got the email” cost more than a pretty PDF. Re-send, an address change, voiding the old QR on a refund and syncing that to the offline gate before doors open — that is craft. A company invoice: KSeF. A secondary exchange in the fanSALE class is another product, not the first-gate MVP.
An offline gate, a per-person cap and a marketplace hybrid without an Eventim API
A hall, a club basement, an amateur stadium: LTE dies when the queue is longest. A code scans against a list downloaded before opening. Two stewards, two phones, one list. A cap per account or phone cuts harvesters, not a parent buying for three. Going / Eventim can stay as discovery; your own pool for the mailing list does not hand them the base. Stock across channels you watch with a buffer — we do not wire a public, cheap Eventim / Going / WORD / Info-Car API into the calendar price, because the live-sync interface you would need is not there.
If commission on the last three events hurts — send ticket count, average price and whether you need sectors / an offline gate. We will quote an engine for the next date: pool, payment, QR, a list. Not a five-year platform and not “a Polish Ticketmaster” on one conference’s budget.
Frequently asked questions
- Will your own system replace Going, Eventim, eBilet or Ticketmaster?
- For your own audience — yes. As the only discovery channel for a new artist or city — not necessarily. Often you keep a marketplace for reach and your own checkout for fans, without handing them the whole list.
- What commission do platforms take — can you promise “zero percent forever”?
- There is no single rate. Superboss publishes about 4% net; Tixx.pl — a no-cut-of-ticket model and another fee; international box offices are often double-digit plus a service fee. Your own engine has a build cost and a payment-gateway fee (that is not zero). We count it on numbers from your events, not on a slogan.
- How many tickets can the system take at peak?
- Hundreds and the low thousands with a queue and a gate designed for peak — yes, in an MVP budget. Tens of thousands a second on a nationwide on-sale is a different budget (infra, a virtual queue). Say the scale honestly at the start.
- Many dates, cities and a season pass?
- Yes — a tour, a workshop cycle, a league season. One cart, many pools, a pass as a product with several QRs or one code for the season. A numbered stadium map — a separate phase if you really sell seats.
- A store app for the attendee?
- At the start a ticket in email, PDF and Apple/Google Wallet if we can fit it in the phase. A native app when there is a reason (a programme, a room-change push, a pass), not for the snobbery of “we have an app like Going”.
- Can we refund a ticket and not walk into consumer law?
- Refunds and excluding withdrawal for a dated event are terms copy a lawyer supplies. We supply the checkbox, the version, the log and the money-back process through the operator. We do not write you a clause “by eye”.
- Will you build ticket resale like fanSALE?
- Not in the price of the first gate. A secondary exchange is another product (authentication, a price cap, fraud). First: a sale and a scan that does not die without LTE.
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